Improvement in composition of castor-oil soaps



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THEODORE DEHON MATHEWS, OF ST. PETERS PARISH, SOUTH CAROLINA.

IMPROVEMENT IN COMPOSITION OF CASTOR-OIL SOAPS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 31,025, dated January 1, 1861.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THEODORE DEHON MATriEWs, M. D., of St. Peters Parish, in the district of Beaufort and State of South Carolina, have invented a new and Improved Mode of Making Soap out of Castor-Oil or Oil of Palma Christi; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, viz:

Oil of palma Christi, one gallon; refined potash, six pounds; aqua-ammonia, two pounds: result, sixty pounds. Mix the aqua-ammonia and the castor-oil well together, stirring or triturating until a soap-liniment is formed of the consistence and color of thick cream. Melt the potash in four (4:) gallons of water, and then pour in the soap-liniment. Stir them well together and pour into the boiler and apply heat rapidly. When the soap is made (which is within from twenty-five to sixty minutes, according to the degree of caloric employed) and it has commenced to cast upjets or bubbles, (as hominy or meal in the act of cooking,) then add three gallons of cold water, and dipinto buckets or troughs. Stir the in gredients'together occasionally while cooling, in order to mix them properly. When cool, although the soap may be in a liquid state of the consistence of sweet milk, stir briskly with a large ladle for two to five minutes, when it will almost immediately become hard as jelly. Then pour into a large box or square trough and letit stand for twenty-four hours, at which time it is hard soap, and may be cut into bars and stamped.

Manner ofwasht'ng after the soap is made, ciz Take one pound of the Eureka or Labor-Saving Soap for from twelve (12) to sixteen (16) dozen pieces of clothes, and melt in one or two quarts of hot water. Put your clothes into a tub of water, (cold or tepid, as may be preferred.) There should be j ust enough water to cover the clothing, then pour in the melted soap, and let them (the clothes) remain in soak for thirty minutes. Then commence to press or squeeze and wring out the clothing, and place each piece thus served into a tub of clear or rinsing water. Rinse thoroughly in two or more clear or rinsing waters, when the dirt and soap will together be removed and the clothes will be left in a clear and thoroughly-renovated condition.

One pound of this soap served in this manner will thus wash from thirteen to sixteen dozen pieces with very little labor to the laundress, and in an incredibly short space of time, without injury to the texture or extraction of the colors of calico, while as a hard soap it is almost unrivaled, causing the hands to become clean and white without imparting that disagreeable feeling of roughness or stickiness so much complained of in the use of turpentine or pine-gum and nearly all other kinds of soap, even those used for the toilet.

I furthermore argue that it will be a source of great economy to the consumer, because, while one pound of this soap will accomplish from one hundred to six hundred per cent. as much or more than any other soap, with so great a saving of time and labor, it will also be a great saving to the poor of our large cities in the consumption of fuel, inasmuch as it is not necessary to make use ofany warm water whatsoever, (only requiring a longer period of time for the melting of the soap in cold water.)

I furthermore state that in the use of this erasive soap the hands are not injured nor the fingers made sore, as in other strong erasive soaps, often to the destruction of the fingernails, but that, on the contrary, it is decidedly emollient, and by its constant use will heal up sores and abrasions, and cure the fingers which have been made sore by the use of other erasive soaps, answering this purpose almost, if not equally, as well as castile-soap, andthis emollient and healing property I attribute to the castor-oil which is used as its base.

I pray, lastly, in these specifications that I may be protected by Letters Patent in the manufacture of this soap, because by this soap the most happy results are effected, which cannot be so well nor so advantageously accomplished by any other soap ever before invented--viz., crochet-work, sleazy and other goods of very delicate texture, such as gauze, fine worsted, silks, satins, &c., may be rinsed perfectly clean in a few minutes when this soap is used, no rubbing being required, and hence are rendered valueless and must be thrown away if by use or by accident they become soiled with grease, tar, or paints, and that all of these separately or combined can be entirely removed by this erasive soap, and the apparel which was before valueless may be restored to its original beauty and cleanliness;

second, that blankets, flannels, and broadcloth, 850., may in twenty-five or thirty minutes be made perfectly clean when they were before in so soiled a condition as to be rendered almost wholly valueless, and could scarcely ever be restored by any soap now known to the public, so much friction being required in the use of any other soap when the clothing is in such a soiled condition that the goods would be worn out by the friction required to render them clean; third, that although this soap is so powerfully erasive in its character, yet the oleaginous nature of the castor-oil-its oleinecounteracts the caustic properties of the alkalies employed, and the combination is so happy that calicoes may not only be washed with perfect impunity and without detriment either to their colors or their textures, but will be greatly improved by its constant and continued use, even those which had become greatly faded having their colors brightened up and renewed; fourth, that adamantine or stearine may be removed with a stiff brush and a piece of this soap when they have accidentally fallen upon broadcloth or silks or satins, only a few minutes being required to remove the grease-spot, and that even paint which has become hard upon the clothing or tar or varnish may also be thus erased by this soap and a little warm or hot Water, and that coat-collars whichare filled with hair-grease or dandruff can be renovated in a few minutes. 'There are many other advantages I might urge in advance of the claims of my Eureka or Labor-Saving Soap, but

time and space forbid. I however, sum up by way of recapitulation as follows:

I do not claim as my invention the use of oastor-oil as an ingredient of soaps; but

- What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The product formed by combining the following-named articlesin theproportionsindicated: oil of palma Christi, one gallon aqua-ammonia, two pounds; refined potash, six pounds.

,rnnononn DEHON MATHEWS. [L s.]

Witnesses SAML. E. DANIELS, J. R. PARNELL. 

